Archives for May 11, 2018

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner, Hester Peirce, delivered a speech before the Medici Conference earlier this month discussing many issues pertinent to ICOs. Mrs. Peirce indicated that the SEC is open to discussion of developing a regulatory sandbox for ICOs, however, expressed a number of concerns surrounding the legislative model. The commissioner also warned of the potentially stifling effect of applying “blanket” classifications to the emerging field of cryptocurrencies.

Commissioner Peirce opened her speech by stating that “Back in Washington, DC, there has been a lot of talk about regulatory sandboxes,” adding that “A number of forward-looking regulators, both here and abroad, have created regulatory sandboxes.”

Mrs. Peirce cites a number of examples of effective regulatory sandboxes, including the United Kingdom – where the Financial Conduct Authority governs a sandbox that “allows businesses to test innovative products, services, business models and delivery mechanisms in the real market, with real consumers,” and Singapore – where the Monetary Authority of Singapore uses regulatory sandbox apparatus to “encourage[e] more Fintech experimentation so that promising innovations can be tested in the market and have a chance for wider adoption, in Singapore and abroad.”

“The motivating notion behind a regulatory sandbox,” Mrs. Peirce asserts, “is that the regulator in a sense sits in the sandbox with the innovator. Not only is she right there to make sure that nobody gets hurt, but she has a front-row seat on the innovative process. She sits at the entrepreneur’s shoulder as he thinks through how to address structural and aesthetic weaknesses in his sandcastle.”

Despite expressing her openness to discussion surrounding regulatory sandboxes, the commissioner outlined a number of qualms held regarding the legislative model.

Mrs. Peirce states that “The regulator may insert itself inappropriately into the creative process,” stressing that “The regulator should be careful not to try to control the development of new technologies. Not only is it outside the regulator’s proper function, but such micromanagement can result in the regulator forcing new technology to fit existing—and familiar—regulatory frameworks regardless of whether those frameworks are appropriate.”

“The law deserves respect, but technological progress should not be bound by the limits of the regulator’s lawyerly imagination,” added Mrs. Peirce.

Commissioner Peirce also outlined concerns that regulatory sandboxes create “the temptation […] for regulators […] to substitute their own judgement for that of consumer and investors,” emphasizing that “Regulators do not need to take on the impossible task of deciding what products and services will win over consumers. The market is efficient at signaling which products and services people want in their lives and which they would rather do without.”

Regulation as Instrumental in Defining the Future Direction of Innovative Technology

Mrs. Peirce stated that “The world of tokens and ICOs is still in its infancy,” emphasizing that “Determining the appropriate regulatory regime also will mean determining the shape these transactions will take as they mature.

The commissioner added that “While it’s tempting to envision what might come to pass if these concepts were free to develop in whatever way the market dictated, without being pinned down with a label […] there comes a point where regulatory uncertainty is a greater roadblock than confinement within a particular regulatory regime.”

Graphics card manufacturer Nvidia has announced its revenues for the first quarter, mentioning separately the amount generated from sales to the crypto market. The total includes $289 million related to GPUs for cryptocurrency mining, according to a corporate report. Demand from crypto miners was stronger than expected, the company noted.

Reporting its financial results from a strong first quarter, Nvidia Corp. has revealed, in a separate box, the amount it generated from sales to the crypto sector – $289 million. According to the company’s CFO Commentary on Q1 Fiscal Results, the total revenue increased 66 percent year-over-year, and 10 percent sequentially, to a record $3.21 billion. All platforms – Gaming, Professional Visualization, Datacenter, and Automotive – have produced growth, the company said.

“GPU business revenue was $2.77 billion, up 77 percent from a year earlier and up 12 percent sequentially, led by Gaming and Datacenter,” the leading video card manufacturer announced. Gaming revenue was up 68 percent from a year ago and down 1 percent sequentially. Datacenter revenue exceeded $700 million, up 71 percent from a year ago and up 16 percent sequentially, Nvidia detailed.

“OEM [original equipment manufacturer] sales included $289 million related to GPUs for cryptocurrency mining,” the company pointed out, revealing reportedly for the first time the revenues from its sales to the crypto market.

Demand from cryptocurrency miners in the first quarter was stronger than expected, Nvidia admitted Thursday on its earnings conference call, according to Bloomberg. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said:

Crypto miners bought a lot of our GPUs in the quarter and it drove prices up. I think that a lot of gamers weren’t able to buy into the new Geforce as a result.

However, the company expects sales in the sector to fall by about two-thirds in the current quarter.

GPU Manufacturers Benefit from the “New Form of Computing”

Earlier this year Jensen Huang predicted that despite regulatory pressures, the popularity of cryptocurrencies will grow in the next few years. The chief executive of Nvidia said that cryptocurrency, or the “ability for the world to have a very low-friction, low-cost way of exchanging value, is going to be here for a long time”.

In March, Huang told CNBC that cryptos and blockchain, “a fundamental new form of computing,” will be important drivers for the GPU market. He was also quoted as saying that Nvidia needs to increase its GPU production, admitting that the surging demand may be coming from the decentralized nature of cryptos. “There are supercomputers in the hands of almost everybody. No singular force or entity can control the currency,” he added.

Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia’s main competitor, has also benefited from increased sales to crypto miners. According to a report by the analytical firm Jon Peddie Research, demand from the sector helped AMD reduce the gap between its results and those of Nvidia. In the last quarter of 2017, AMD’s share of the GPU market rose from 27.2% to 33.7%. The authors noted that its products remain cheaper, while offering practically the same productivity, when it comes to crypto mining.

In April, Advanced Micro Devices announced that its revenue for the first quarter amounted to $1.65 billion, with net income reaching $81 million. Again, the positive results were helped by continued demand for cryptocurrency mining hardware. “The first quarter was an outstanding start to 2018 with 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth,” said AMD president and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID), an arm of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, announced the creation of the Global Public Chain Assessment Index — a set of criteria for public blockchains for research and development purposes. It’s the latest sign that China’s powers-that-be are doing their homework on, and not simply rejecting, blockchain tech.

With the permission of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the CCID dove into distributed ledger technology and created a new index — the Global Public Chain Assessment Index — to help innovators in the country gain their bearings.

The monthly index, announced at a Beijing conference on public blockchains, was actualized through the coordination of officials, techies, and academics across several domestic organizations, including:

In the very least, the new tool shows that the Chinese government has blockchain on the brain and is making increasingly agreeable overtures toward the fledgling tech.

The Index’s Criteria

In order to create their index, the CCID team and their collaborators hashed out criteria for what precisely constituted “public chain” projects. These criteria were defined as:

“The project should have its own independent main chain”“The node can be freely created”“It should have a published block explorer where block information can easily be tracked”“Open-source code”“The project’s website page is available and the project’s team member can be contacted”

At a seminar held in Beijing today, the China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) announced its inaugural monthly Global Public Chain Assessment Index, a ranking of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain projects that the Chinese government considers to possess technological merit. The CCID is part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a state

In a recent case, the London police were able to seize $700,000 worth of Bitcoin from Grant West, a notorious hacker.

Cryptocurrency Seized

A recent article from USA Today reports that the London Metropolitan Police managed to seize cryptocurrencies from a prolific hacker. According to the report, Grant West was arrested last year on a train by British police, who were working with Scotland Yard.

The British police force was able to seize cryptocurrencies worth $700,000 from the 25-year-old hacker. On the subject of hackers, police investigator Mick Gallagher says:

These people generally feel they can operate with impunity, that they can’t be touched. We have now debunked that.

Investigators say that West, who went by the online name “Courvoisier,” was behind cyber attacks on more than 100 different companies, including gambling shops, mobile phone companies, and supermarkets. The report also notes that “Courvoisier” used Bitcoin to launder his proceeds from the sale of passwords, credit card numbers, and personal information on the Dark Web.

An interesting twist to this cryptocurrency seizure is that the police were able to snag the bitcoins due to the fact that West was still logged into his computer, and investigators found his access keys that were saved on his computer.

Cybercriminals and Cryptocurrencies

Many cybercriminals have used cryptocurrencies to launder their proceeds from illegal activities. Some cryptocurrencies are also massively used in Dark Web markets to purchase illegal goods or services like drugs, credit card information, DDoS attacks, etc. Alex Lakatos, a lawyer from Washington D.C., states:

When it comes to transactions on the Dark Web, (people) nearly universally use cryptocurrency.

He also added:

The use of virtual currency for illicit purposes has been a huge success.

Some cybercriminals may believe that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may offer anonymity, but it has been pointed out that investigators often times can track certain cryptocurrencies but cannot tell who owns them.

Another point of fact is that the vast majority of Bitcoin transactions are for perfectly legal reasons. However, the media and centralized authorities love to play up the meme of crypto and illicit activity.

What are your thoughts on the cryptocurrency seizure by the London police? Will police be able to enhance their ability to go after hackers or will hackers stay a few steps ahead? Let us know in the comments below!

Of course, news of UpBit involvement in fraud is shocking and more so spells doom for EOS and Tron coin holders. This is because the majority of the exchange’s trading volumes come from the latter’s demand or liquidation. It’s a definite EOS, Tron and Litecoin sell signal visible for everyone here.

However, we cannot attribute this revelation to the current market slide or the $50 billion market cap loss, maybe it’s a coincidence brought in by other unseen market factors. If it is, the double digit slide we are seeing could usher in more sell pressure. In my view, short selling Litecoin, Stellar and IOTA besides the two can increase our odds of turning in a profit.

Let look at these charts:

EOSUSD (EOS)

There we are back at it guys, a rating company that is trying to influence the natural, market defined trajectory of altcoins trading. While we understand that rating companies are helpful, we don’t need another auction in the market.

Weiss rating is a company that can easily skew investor inclinations if they give a favorable forecast and right now, their eyes are set on high performers, one of them is EOS. Market moving news is that a rumor of UpBit involvement in Fraud. Yes, the main story is they are accused of trading non-existent coins. Remember, EOS and Tron make up the majority of trading volumes in this South Korean exchange.

If you want to check out this double digit price EOS deterioration, then the daily chart provide a better glimpse. First, there is break below the consolidation at $15 and as such, we shall be trading a bear break out with resistances or stops at $16 or there about. Now, because of that bearish engulfing pattern and clear lower lows, it’s apparent that sellers are in charge. Advised by this, our immediate bear targets would be at $12 and $10.

LTCUSD (Litecoin)

If you want to watch a Dallas Maverick game, then you can as well pay your ticket using Litecoin. Over time it is obvious that Litecoin adoption is spreading and more merchants are finding value in it as a service.

On the charts, Litecoin is down 10 percent in the last 24 hours and it is likely that that depreciation shall continue now that bears are in control. Evidently, from the daily chart, that break below the middle BB, a minor support line and a point of importance in our analysis no longer hold.

Because of this and the fact that stochastics are bearish, we can align our trades with the existing short term bear trend and aim for $125 and later $110. Otherwise, if there is a brief recovery today, then expect resistance at $150 or there about.

XLMUSD (Stellar Lumens)

If anything, Stellar Lumens is one of the biggest losers in the last 24 hours. Yes, bears are in charge but the depreciation on this pair has been astounding and in a matter of hours, Stellar Lumens sellers were testing 30 cents.

Regardless, we expect more erosion today especially say there is a rebound back to 35 cents as price action re-calibrate. As bear momentum is strong, ideal bear targets are at 26 cents and 20 cents. If not, and prices react strongly back above 35 cents, then we remain neutral and wait for thrusts above 40 cents.

TRXUSD (Tron)

As long as Tron’s partnership with Alibaba remains a rumor, Tron prices will have some sort of support. However, considering the current across the board crypto beating, Tron hasn’t been spared from the sword. Tron is down 14 percent in the last 24 hours and likely to end weak as we conclude the week.

In line with yesterday’s forecast, selling Tron with targets at 6.5 cents can turn out to be a good trading strategy. After all, stochastics are bearish and we have those bear soldiers which by the way are trading below 8 cents and the middle BB. If there is a rebound towards 8 cents, then look for shorting opportunities or stochastic sell signals at those levels and aim for 6 cents or lower.

IOTUSD (IOTA)

Besides Project Q, you cannot mine IOTA coins meaning it is literally immune to mining bans. That’s some of the benefits of owning this coin in the long run. At the moment, speculators can benefit from the up and down movements of this coin.

Like the rest of the market, IOTA is bearish and traders are quickly unloading it. For perspective, IOTA is down 13 percent in the last 24 hours and that’s not all, bears are now trading below $2, the middle BB. Borrowing hints from yesterday’s forecast, we shall continue holding our sells as we aim for $1.5 or even $1 in the course of the month.

Play2Live, the world’s first blockchain based decentralized streaming platform for gamers and esports fans, is working to develop its own infrastructure called Level Up Chain. Play2Live has signaled that it plans to launch the Level Up Chain Testnet during July 2018.

The key advantage of Level Up Chain is the ability to potentially provide unlimited bandwidth for its users. The main network (main net) will be able to process up to 500 transactions per second. Due to the wide functionality of the Play2Live platform, transactions corresponding to different services will be allocated in different functional blocks of the network. Therefore, sub-chains with a capacity of 500 TPS for each functional block of the platform will be essential to scaling the network to accommodate for millions of active users. With the use of sub chains, the entire Level Up Chain infrastructure will be able to provide 100,000 TPS or more and will carry out transactions almost instantly, even during periods of enormous strain like live broadcasts and esports tournaments. The cost of transactions within Level Up Chain will be minimal, and the team at Play2Live estimates that the fees will be maintained at $0.01 per transaction.

In addition to that, Level Up Chain will use consensus protocol to reduce the cost of transactions within the network via special certificates. The number of certificates issued will be hashed and stored in a multidimensional “matrix”, which will change due to certificates growth or decrease. Each node will be given a “trust code”, allowing to enter one vector into the matrix. The code will contain the encryption of the input vector including registry information and code identifier contained in the block, forming a hash, which is again translated into a vector. That makes it impossible to predict vector’s direction based on the input signal.

As a result, the network will use encrypted number of certificates, not single transactions, where a single transaction will receive one or thousands of certificates. This indicator will assign corresponding status to the matrix. Each verifying node transaction will exchange codes with other nodes, that have properties of the opposite side of the matrix, after a certain number of cycles. Thanks to that, a single transaction will transfer a lot of vectors, significantly reducing the load on the network. In the meanwhile, consensus algorithm will solve the problems of processing power, giving each node an equal chance of being selected for transaction confirmation process.

The platform plans to attract more than 5M users by the end of 2018 – first quarter of 2019. Play2Live aims to achieve this goal by working with content providers, as well as collaborating with the world’s leading streamers and esports tournament organizers around the globe. Some of the first major tournaments on the platform are soon to be announced. Through its exposure to esports and live video streaming, some of the fastest growing markets in the world, Level Up Chain has the potential to become one of the leading blockchain platforms for live streaming and esports.

Vladislav Arbatov, CTO at Play2Live:

“Working on Bitshares, we have faced complex scaling and risks of ‘bottleneck’ as the functionality of the platform expanded, and the amount of transactions increased. The peak power of Bitshares is not enough to cover all the activities of Play2Live. That is why we are realizing product architecture that will allow us to scale the project without putting it to risk of depending on the capacity of the third-party blockchain.

Alexey Burdyko, CEO and founder at Play2Live:

“Play2Live offers numerous tools for users. Each of them will be provided by our own reliable Level

Messaging application Telegram is testing a personal identification service, Telegram Passport, and could launch it before the end of this month, according to Russian sources. The news apparently means that Telegram’s upcoming blockchain platform TON is still on track despite the company recently canceling a long-anticipated ICO.

Telegram Passport, which is currently being tested, will allow Telegram users to upload their ID documents just once for secure storage, and identification will also work for other online services choosing to partner up with the messaging application, say sources close to Telegram, quoted by Russian business daily Vedomosti.

According to the sources, Telegram Passport could be inaugurated as early as by the end of May 2018. Vedomosti sources also named the Russian e-payment system Qiwi among Telegram’s prospective partners that will accept user identification via Telegram Passport.

The launch of Telegram Passport could come as a major solution to the issue of anonymity of online transactions, including, primarily, transactions in crypto – something that has been making regulators worry all over the world.

Telegram and Privacy Battles in Russia

The news about Telegram Passport follows the messaging service’s fierce battle with the Russian government over its refusal to allow local secret services to decipher Telegram messages.

The Russian government claimed it needed access to people’s private messages because of concerns over the threat of terrorism, but Telegram shrugged it off as infringement on users’ privacy.

Some sources said, however, that the Russian government was more concerned about Telegram’s upcoming blockchain platform TON, for which the company has already raised over $2 billion USD, and the cryptocurrency “Gram” attached to it, rather than Telegram messages themselves.

In the wake of the ban, internet services for other companies, such as Amazon and Google, were disrupted in Russia, but Telegram has continued to operate in a normal way as people use VPN and the company itself redirects traffic through cloud services.

In any case, Telegram’s plans for TON might be at odds with regulators’ attempts to curb usage of crypto globally. When Telegram unexpectedly cancelled its ICO for TON in early May without any explanation, regulatory concerns were mentioned as a possible reason by observers.

Other observers said, however, that Telegram already raised the cash it once wanted and didn’t have to bother with an ICO.

Founded by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, who earlier was behind the social network VKontakte (the Russian equivalent of Facebook) Telegram has ambitious plans for TON and Gram, such as offering faster transaction times and lower fees than the existing cryptocurrencies.

Some may claim that Telegram’s plans to launch a user identification service, the idea of which apparently contradicts that of online anonymity, could be out of sync with Durov’s own philosophy of privacy and personal freedom.

However, over the last few weeks, Telegram users have been able to see Durov’s unequivocal stance on online privacy in his fight with the Russian government. That could be reason to worry less about the security of their personal data stored by Telegram.

Would an identification storage service like this make your life easier? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.

Leveraging blockchain technology can help improve supply chain management and shipping as well as help protect United States companies from pirated products shipped from other countries which are causing unfair competition and disrupting markets. This claim emerged from presentations and testimonies from experts who spoke at the Congressional hearing of the United States Subcommittee on

The China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing announced its first monthly Global Public Chain Assessment Index at a recent conference. The platform is designed to offer detailed reviews of global blockchain projects by renowned experts in academia, industry and government bodies.

Previously, the CCID had established the Blockchain Research Institute and the China Ecological Blockchain Alliance, which are assigned to strengthen industry, policy research and blockchain technology. The organizations also provide software research and testing to China’s government.

The conference introduced blockchain experts to the CCID’s latest work in public chain identification. The association’s Blockchain Research Institute has garnered most of its data through the cooperation of the CCID Think Tank, the China Software Testing Center and other departments built to scientifically evaluate global public chain technology and further blockchain innovation. In the future, the CCID hopes to provide professional consulting services to blockchain businesses, government branches, technology developers and research institutes, thus paving the way for further blockchain adoption.

During the event, representatives stated what was necessary to identify public chain objects:

An application must possess its own independent main chain.

Any entity should be able to freely create and operate a full node on the network.

It should have a published block explorer where information is easily tracked.

It must run on open-source code.

Its primary team members should be easy to contact through its website.

These regulations have allowed the organization to identify several public chain objects including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano and NEO, among others. The first Global Public Chain Assessment will be formally announced this coming week, while the CCID’s website will serve as its official publishing platform.

The conference was hosted by Dr. Songtao Pu of the CCID Think Tank. Additional panelists included Dr. Qian Liu from the organization’s software institute, Dr. Tao Lv from the China Software Testing Center, and Anlei Wei from the CCID Blockchain Research Institute.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China was established in 2008 as a government body under the country’s state council to administer China’s industrial branches and information industry. Its primary duties include determining China’s industrial planning, standards and policies; promoting the development of major equipment and innovation in China’s communications arena; guiding the construction of information systems; and instilling necessary protection for these systems.

Serving directly under the Ministry, the CCID seeks to develop information industries in China and bridge the gaps between government and business ventures by providing research, evaluations and certifications to ongoing data projects.